Men's Swimming & Diving Coaches

The Denison swimming & diving program has become synonymous with success at the national level and behind that success over the past 25 years has been head coach Gregg Parini.

Since taking over both Denison programs in the fall of 1987, Parini has gone on to build one of the most consistently successful programs in the history of Division III athletics.  Under Parini’s watch his teams have captured two national championships, 12 national runner-up finishes in addition to Denison’s current streak of 48 consecutive top-10 national finishes.

An eight-time NCAA National Coach of the Year, Parini is coming off one of his greatest achievements to date, as the DU men recently snapped Kenyon College’s 31-year streak of national championships in March at the 2011 NCAA Division III Championship from Knoxville.  The Big Red ended the streak by rallying from 36 points down on the final day only to win by one point, which was the closest finish in the history of the NCAA swimming & diving championship.

The national championship was the second of Parini’s career.  The first came in 2001 when his women’s squad snapped Kenyon’s streak of 17-consecutive national titles in Buffalo, N.Y.

At the conference level, Parini has coached Denison to eight conference titles and has earned the North Coast Athletic Conference coach of the year award, 14 times.  DU has produced over 260 All-Americans that have racked over 2,000 All-American swims.  Twenty-two Denison swimmers and divers have been awarded the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and in 2004, former Denison swimmer Darius Grigaliunas swam in the Olympics as a member of the Lithuanian team.

In addition to his success in the coaching ranks, Parini’s career as an educator and Associate Professor at Denison has been equally impressive.  In May of 2011 he was honored by the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America as the recipient of the National Collegiate and Scholastic Trophy which is the highest award bestowed by the CSCAA.  In 2007 he was awarded the Charles A. Brickman Teaching Excellence Award which is given annually to one faculty member who has demonstrated a vibrant interest in the learning process, as well as an understanding of teaching as a continuously evolving art form: someone who embraces the teaching and mentoring of students, not just as a profession, but as a calling. 

Parini began his coaching career in 1984 as a volunteer assistant women's coach at Michigan State University where he earned his master’s in counseling psychology. Since then he has held coaching positions for the Upper Arlington Swim Club, Mount Union College and East Lansing High School.

He is a 1982 graduate of Kenyon College where he was a member of Jim Steen’s first national championship team in 1979. A tri-captain for the 1981-82 season, he led the team to its third NCAA crown in as many years. Parini was an 18-time All-American, a seven-time Division III National Champion, and left Kenyon with five national records. He was voted the team’s most valuable swimmer in 1981 and Senior Athlete of the Year in 1982 by the Lords athletic department.  In May of 2002 he was inducted into Kenyon College’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

In addition to his coaching efforts, Parini has also made an impact in the community of Granville. He is the founder, owner and director of The Swimming Clinic, a clinic for age-group swimmers. He is a volunteer Youth Baseball and Hockey coach for both the Granville Recreation Commission and the Newark Ice Hockey Association. He has served as a Youth Group Leader for the Trinity Episcopal Church. Also in Granville, he is the co-founder and co-director of the Red, White and Hoops Basketball Tournament for the Granville Recreation Commission.

Parini is currently a member of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America, the American Swimming Coaches Association, United States Swimming and the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association. He resides in Granville with his wife, Alice, and is the father of six sons; Joseph, Solomon, Gabe, Andrew, Ted and Simon.

Some of Parini's most outstanding accomplishments in coaching include:

• 2001 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Champions
• 2011 NCAA Division III Men's Swimming & Diving Champions
• 48-straight top-10 finishes at the NCAA Division III Championships
• Coached over 250 All-Americans to over 1900 All-American performances
• Coached 22 swimmers who have gone on to earn NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships
• Coached two swimmers to US Olympic Trial Qualifying Performances in eight events
• Coached one athlete (Darius Grigaliunas) to the Olympic Games in Athens (2004)
• Coached 44 consecutive Denison teams that earned Team All-Academic honors
• Coached 150 plus individual All-Academic performers at Denison
• Led Denison's Men's Swimming to NCAC titles in 1997, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
• Led Denison's Women's Swimming to NCAC titles in 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
• 14-time North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming Coach of the Year
• 8-time NCAA Division III Swimming Coach of the Year

Some of his involvement has incorporated activities such as:

• Associate Professor of physical education, teaching exercise physiology and sports psychology
• Former chair of the Denison Physical Education department.
• Awarded the Charles A. Brickman Teaching Excellence Award at the 2007 Denison Academic Awards Convocation
• Facilitator in the University SWOT analysis "Think Tank" in 1999
• Athletic Department Representative for the Board of Trustees Recruiting Panel
• Faculty Representative for the Denison University Judicial Board
• Co-Coordinator of Administrative Policy Review Committee for the Substance Abuse Task Force
• National Coaching Advisor for the Isle of Mauritius
• Meet Director of the 1987 Men's and Women's NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championship
• Keynote Speaker at the College Swimming Coaches Association of American Annual Convention, Greater Columbus Swimming Team of Ohio College Night, Central Ohio Swimming Association Annual Awards Banquet, Virginia High School Swimming Coaches Convention, The Total Performance Swimming Camp, Ohio High School Swimming Coaches Convention

Jason Glorius returns for his third season as the men's and women's diving coach at Denison University in 2011-12. 

Glorius' divers enjoyed one of the best seasons in program history thanks to a sweep of all four event championships at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship to go along with a pair of All-American performances at the national championship meet. 

Sophomore diver Gabe Dixson finished fourth in the one-meter and three-meter and senior Cody Smith finished 11th in the one-meter and fifth in the three-meter.  Their performances contributed 50 points toward Denison's point total en route to the program's first NCAA Division III Men's Swimming & Diving national championship.

At the 2011 NCAC Championship, Glorius picked up his second-straight NCAC Coach of the Year Award as Dixson swept both events.  On the women's side, senior Lizzie Litwack was named the NCAC Female Diver of the Year after winning the three-meter championship.  Glorius earned Women's Coach of the Year honors as well.

In his first season guiding the Big Red divers he helped DU to North Coast Athletic Conference Championships in both men's and women's swimming & diving in 2010.  Junior diver Sammie Salas was named the NCAC Female Diver of the Year and Glorius accepted his first NCAC Coach of the Year award.

Glorius came to Denison after spending all of 2008 and part of 2009 as the head coach and director of the Thunderbird Diving Club in Cincinnati, Ohio.  In addition to running the Thunderbird club team, Glorius also coached the diving teams at Cincinnati Moeller, Indian Hill, Mariemont and Madeira High School.

Prior to starting the Thunderbird Diving Club, Glorius was a part of the Tri State club in Cincinnati, Ohio where he worked with elite international divers who represented the United States at meets in both China and England.

As a competitive diver, Glorius was a member of the Cincinnati Stingray’s where he qualified for numerous Junior Olympic national championships and was a high school All-American at Archbishop Moeller High School.  He went on to accept a diving scholarship to The University of Illinois and then Miami University where he helped the Redhawks to the 1997 Mid-American Conference championship.

Matt Ense enters his fourth season as assistant coach of the Denison men's and women's swimming and diving program in 2011-12.

Since arriving in Granville three years ago, the Big Red swimming programs have won one national championship, posted three national runner-up finishes and two third-place finishes at the Division III national meet.  Denison has also won three consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference men's and women's swimming & diving championships.

Before coming to Denison, Ense served one year as an assistant coach at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. where he helped lead the men's and women's swimming teams to over 100 personal best times and nine school records. He also helped coach five NCAA qualifiers.

Prior to his stint at Union College, Ense served as the head swimming coach at St. Ursula Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio for three years. While at St. Ursula, Ense guided the Bulldogs to three-straight top five finishes at the State Meet and a 22-4 record in dual meets. He also mentored 10 high school All-Americans.

In addition, Ense spent three months as the assistant swimming coach for The Race Club in Key Largo, Fla. While in Key Largo, he helped Michigan head coach Mike Bottom prepare 13 Olympians for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Ense worked closely with Nathan Adrian, who set a World Record and won a Gold Medal in the 400-meter free relay, and Mike Cavic, who captured the silver in the 100-meter fly.

A 2002 graduate of Eastern Michigan University, Ense earned his degree in Business Administration and Marketing. At Eastern Michigan, he was a five-time Mid American Conference swimming champion. In 2000, he completed at the U.S. Olympic Trials where he placed ninth in the 5K swim.

Ense resides in Granville.

Rachel Schlatter is entering her third season as the assistant men's and women's swimming coach at Denison University in 2011-12. 

Schlatter helped the Big Red to one of the program's most historic year's in 2010-11 as the men's swimmers & divers snapped Kenyon College's streak of 31-consecutive national championships.  At the same meet, the Denison women posted the program's sixth national runner-up finish.  In addition, both programs won their third-straight North Coast Athletic Conference Championship.

In her first season with the Big Red, Schlatter helped both DU programs to their third NCAC championships in each of their respective program's history.  At nationals, both the men and the women finished second in the final standings. 

Schlatter came to Denison from Raleigh, N.C. where she spent one year as the assistant age group coach and head varsity coach at the A.E. Finely YMCA.

A four-year member of the swimming and diving team at The University of Nebraska, Schlatter graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Journalism after majoring in advertising with a concentration in Communication, English, and History.  She was a three-time first-team All-Academic  selection and appeared on the Commissioners Honor Roll four times.  In the pool she was a four-time NCAA provisional time qualifier.

After graduating in the spring of 2006 she completed an internship with Sandhills Publishing in Lincoln, Neb. which would lead to a two-year full-time internship with The University of Nebraska's athletic development and ticket office.  Schlatter served as the coordinator of the Husker Athletics Fund and managed operations, finances, and staffing for 17 active booster groups.